Don't Say It
by imdeadsothere
Summary: It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Can Ron fix what he broke? All he has to do is kiss it better. SLASH. ONE-SHOT.


"Have you ever considered going a day without talking about homework?" Ron groaned.

"Well have you ever considered going a day without talking about Quidditch?" Hermione retorted.

"Well at least Quidditch is fun!"

"Maybe to you."

"Besides, we're not talking about me, we're talking about you, and you talk about homework _way_ too much."

"Fine," Hermione said, "I challenge you to a round of 'Don't Say It' then."

"Don't say it? What's that?" Hermione smirked.

"Just a game, it's very simple so even _you_ might understand it."

"Hey!"

"But if you don't think you're up to it…"

"Fine," Ron said, "I'll do it, whatever it is."

"The rules are simple, each player gets one word that they cannot say for one whole day."

"Is that it?"

"No, because another rule is that you can't let anybody else say it either, and you can't stop them from saying it using the same method twice."

"I don't get it."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "well obviously your word would be Quidditch, and mine would be Homework, starting tomorrow we have to spend the whole day not saying the word ourselves, but also keeping everyone around us from saying it using different methods each time. Like, if I stop someone from saying it by interrupting them, I can't use interruption as a method anymore."

"Then, how else do you get them to stop from saying it?"

"Well that's where the fun comes in," Hermione said, "so are you in? Or do you not think you can handle it."

"I'm in." Ron said resolutely, no way was he letting Hermione have this one.

~.oOo.,.oOo.,.oOo.~

Ron woke up to a groggy start, blinking a few times and gazing around his room before suddenly remembering his challenge with Hermione. Did he really want to spend his whole day keeping other people from saying Quidditch? Well, it's not like he could back out now anyway. Hermione would lord this over him for centuries if he did. He sighed and sat up in bed, it looked like the others had already woken up and left, only Harry remained sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Morning Harry," Ron said as cheerfully as he could muster for seven in the morning.

"Morning," Harry replied.

"You waiting for me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh you don't have to," he said, climbing out of bed and stumbling into the bathroom to shower. When he came out Harry was still there, only he'd turned around so that he was facing the bathroom door now.

"You just been sitting there staring at the door?" Ron asked, walking over to his trunk, not noticing the faint blush that crept onto Harry's cheeks upon seeing his only-being-covered-by-a-towel-still-slightly-damp body.

"Not much else to look at," Harry replied. Keeping his head firmly turned away as Ron's towel dropped and he pulled on his boxers and then proceeded to get dressed.

"Well you don't have to stare at the door now," Ron said, buttoning up his shirt. Harry turned his head, peering at him over his shoulder. Finally Ron grabbed his robes and tossed them on before picking up his book bag.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Tie," Harry replied.

"What?"

"You forgot your tie."

"Oh… yeah," Ron quickly retrieved his tie from where it had wedged itself between two books and a magazine on the floor. He wrapped it around his neck, still struggling with the knot despite having been doing it for seven years. He was just trying to pull the end through the loop when as if out of nowhere Harry's hands appeared and took over quickly wrapping Ron's tie into a perfect knot.

"Thanks!" Ron said cheerfully, looking down at his tie, which was looking nicer than it had probably ever looked.

"Don't mention it," Harry said, grabbing his bag and heading out to the common room, Ron on his heels.

"Morning Harry!" Hermione called, "morning Ron, you still in?"

"Of course!" Ron insisted.

"In for what?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Ron promised to help me with some things after school."

"You mean like ho…"

"Oh! Would you look at the time!" Hermione interrupted, "you two are always waking up so late, come on, we don't have much time for breakfast!" Hermione quickly hurried a now more determined than ever Ron and a slightly confused Harry.

Breakfast passed by uneventfully, first and second periods did too, Ron didn't bother trying to stop anyone from saying Quidditch, partially because Hermione wasn't even there, but mostly because no one was trying to say Quidditch.

"So what were you and Hermione going to do after school?" Harry asked as the two headed for lunch.

"Homework," Ron replied, since it was perfectly legal for him to say that word.

"Oh…" Harry looked a bit crestfallen.

"Why, did you have something planned?" Ron asked.

"No, I was just thinking we could go out and play some…" Ron dropped his book bag, predicting what Harry had been about to say.

"Oh, crap," Harry said quickly bending down to help pick it up, "how did that happen?"

"Dunno," Ron lied.

"Hello boys," Hermione said, showing up, "what happened?" she asked, bending down to pick up one of Ron's books.

"Ron's book bag fell," Harry said, "and now all his h…" the book Hermione was holding "slipped" out of her hand and fell on Harry's foot. Harry let out a small very un-manly squeak. Ron shot Hermione a glare, Hermione just shrugged. There was no 'don't hurt anyone' clause in the rules.

"Let's just go to lunch," Harry said, shoving the last of Ron's books into Ron's bag and handing it to Ron.

Fortunately lunch was uneventful. However Harry was eyeing them both suspiciously the entire time. But at least he wasn't trying to say Quidditch.

In third period Ron had to literally clamp his hand over Harry's mouth to keep him from saying Quidditch. Hermione had had to curse poor Neville.

Ron forced his potion to explode in fourth period, and Hermione knocked hers over onto Slughorn.

In fifth period Ron tripped and "accidentally" knocked Harry over, apologizing profusely and helping him up later. He really did feel kind of bad for dragging Harry into this, especially since it seemed like he was the only one trying to say either homework or Quidditch.

As they were heading to sixth period a chandelier nearly fell on Harry's head but Ron swore it wasn't him. Hermione didn't believe him. Harry on the other hand was looking worse for the wear. Ron had half a mind to cancel the whole thing just seeing his face.

After dinner Ron interrupted Harry by loudly announcing that he was still hungry and dragging him off to the kitchens.

Harry more or less just stopped trying to talk after that, and the rest of the day was going pretty well. It was nearing nine, he actually had his homework finished, and it looked like he might actually finish this challenge.

"Are you two dating?" Harry suddenly asked, completely out of the blue. Both Hermione's and Ron's heads shot up.

"What?" Hermione asked, aghast. Ron couldn't have been that bad of a dating prospect, could he?

"No, it's just you two have been acting weird all day exchanging glances and whatever, like you know something I don't, so I just thought, I mean, you did kind of get together after the battle last year."

"No, we're not dating," Hermione said, "as for last year, after a few weeks you know how we both figured out that we were completely incompatible and decided to be just friends."

"Yeah, I suppose," Harry said, not looking completely convinced. Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, maybe they should at least explain their game to him?

"Okay, we'll since I'm all done with my ho…" the fire suddenly flared up, distracting Harry. It was still on.

Harry sighed, "I'm just going to go to bed," he said, "are you doing anything tomorrow?" he asked, turning to face Ron. Ron shook his head.

"Okay, because I was thinking, maybe tomorrow, that we could go out and play a small game or something."

"A small game of what?" Hermione asked. Ron shot her a glare. Now that was just mean. But crap, he was running out of things to do, he'd already used his words, cursed him, knocked him into things.

"You don't know?" Harry said. Crap, Ron thought quickly, leaning forward slightly in his seat, maybe he could… no he'd done that already, "I just meant a game of qu…"

And Ron kissed him, throwing in some tongue for good measure.

His friends had gone silent by the time he pulled back. Actually, the whole common room had gone silent. Just dead silent.

"Umm…" Ron trailed off.

"Wow Ron, really?" Hermione said, "of all the things you could have done you had to kiss him? And I thought dropping a book on his foot was bad."

"Well he was going to say it," Ron squeaked. Hermione just glared at him.

"Don't you think maybe that was just a little bit too far?"

"What the fucking _Hell_ is going on?" Harry asked, his voice gone hard. Ron wanted to curl up into a tiny ball and die.

"We were, um, playing a game," Hermione squeaked.

"A game?"

"Yeah, um, I wasn't supposed to say the word Quidditch and she wasn't supposed to say the word homework and we were also supposed to keep other people from saying the word as well and…" Ron trailed off, Harry looked murderous.

"So let me guess, all the bullshit that's been happening to me today is all because you two decided you needed to play some stupid little game just to prove yourselves to each other?"

"Well not really like…" Harry glared at him, "yeah okay it was like that," Ron squeaked.

"Well fuck you," Harry spat, standing up, "next time you two are having problems with unresolved sexual tension just leave me the fuck out of it because I am tired of all your _crap_!"

"No, Harry, wait, it's not like that!" Ron quickly said.

"Whatever Ron, just shut up already, I'm sick and tired of you," Harry said, turning and storming toward the portrait hole, quickly exiting into the empty hallways, and Ron's big but often misguided heart cracked cleanly in two, completely unknowing that outside in the darkened hallways Harry's had broken too.

Hermione looked like she was about to cry. Ron just wanted to die. He hadn't meant to hurt Harry, he really hadn't. It was just a game. And it's not like they'd caused any permanent damage, right? And that kiss, it was just a kiss. What's the big deal about a kiss anyway? He'd meant no harm…

Hermione sighed, her eyes fixated on Ron.

"I should have known," she whispered.

"Known what?" Ron asked.

Hermione shook her head, "just a hunch I had, but I guess…" she looked towards the portrait hole.

"Whatever, I'm going to go to bed," she said, standing up.

"But, shouldn't we find Harry?"

"Harry's a grown man and is perfectly capable of taking care of himself," Hermione said, "besides, do you really think he'd want to see your face tonight?"

"No, I guess not."

"Then just go to bed, he'll be fine, it's probably better if he's alone tonight anyway, you know how Harry is." She started to head toward her dormitory before stopping and turning back around.

"Just one question, when you kissed him, it was just so he wouldn't say Quidditch, right?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Ron replied.

"So there was no other motivation at all behind that? None?"

"No."

Hermione nodded, "okay…" she seemed to be thinking for a moment, "then… did you have to use so much tongue?" she asked suddenly. Ron turned bright red. He didn't answer the question. Instead he stood up and quickly hurried to his room. He needed to be alone. Except that Dean and Seamus were already there, so he locked himself in the bathroom, plopping himself down on the edge of the bathtub he carefully studied his hands. Part of him still wanted to chase after Harry, but maybe Hermione was right, and Harry just wanted to be left alone that night. He'd be around in the morning, right? Yeah, that was it, and Ron would find him and apologize and insist that he had meant nothing by the kiss, it was just part of a really stupid game that he was never going to play again ever and Harry would forgive him and they could go back to being best friends and everything would be normal. Yep, that would work. At some point during his thoughts about how perfect everything was going to go tomorrow Ron managed to fall asleep, curled up in the bathtub, that night he dreamed of kissing Harry.

He woke up to Hermione poking him in his side with her wand.

"Ron, Ron wake up!" she demanded, jabbing him again. Ron groaned, opening his eyes. Every inch of his body felt sore, he gazed around at the white tiles that surrounded him.

"Where am I?" he grumbled, trying to sit up but quickly giving up. God, he was sore.

"In the bathroom," Hermione replied.

"Why am I here?"

"You feel asleep here," Hermione said, "the others came and got me when they couldn't get you out in the morning."

"I feel asleep in the… oh…" Ron said, suddenly remembering everything. And by everything he meant everything.

"Crap," Ron muttered, before quickly scrambling out of the bathtub.

"Well you got up fast," Hermione noted.

"Harry," Ron explained quickly, "I have to talk to Harry." He ran into the dormitory and was about to pull on some clothes when he realized that he was still wearing his clothes from yesterday. He sniffed them. Didn't smell too bad, he tried smoothing his shirt out a bit at least, maybe one of the others had some cologne he could borrow…

"Ron," Hermione called.

"What?" Ron asked, looking over at her.

"You don't even know where he is," Hermione pointed out.

"That's the point of looking," Ron said, before running over to Harry's trunk and rummaging around in it before finally pulling out the marauders map.

"What are you even going to say?" Hermione asked. Ron paused.

"I don't know," he said, "the truth I guess."

"What's the truth?"

"I don't know that either," he admitted, he turned toward Hermione, his eyes pleading her for help. She just shook her head.

"You have to figure this one out Ron," she said, "I'm taking full responsibility for the game, but you're the one that kissed him."

"Yeah…" Ron trailed off, crap. Suddenly the fantasy scenario he'd come up with the night before didn't seem so real. Harry wouldn't forgive him that fast. Ron sank down onto the bed. Besides, he really wasn't sure what the truth was anymore. Could he really go up to Harry and tell him that that kiss had meant nothing when he wasn't so sure himself. It had been short, and it had been pretty one sided, but despite all that it had felt… good, really good. And then there was that dream last night.

"Ron?" Hermione asked quietly, coming over to him, "is something up?"

"What if I told you that when I kissed Harry yesterday, I thought it felt good, and that I would like to do it again?" Ron asked, "and what if I told you that last night I dreamed of kissing him again, of kissing him and doing… more?"

"I would say that now you definitely need to patch things up with Harry," Hermione replied, "and I would tell you that you need to tell him the truth, the whole truth, because he deserves to know, especially now that you've probably got him confused out of his mind." Ron nodded slowly. He opened the marauders map up, quickly muttering the right words under his breath. It didn't take him long to find Harry, all he had to do was find the places Harry usually frequented most. And yep, there he was, on the Quidditch pitch. Ron folded up the map and tossed it back into Harry's trunk. Standing up he turned and headed for the door, leaving Hermione behind him. He had to get to Harry, he had to make this right. If he could at least make Harry not hate him, he would be fine with that.

The walk to the Quidditch pitch seemed to take forever, and whispers and stares followed him everywhere. He had a feeling word had gotten around about what had happened last night. It wasn't like they'd exactly been in a private place or anything.

Finally he made it out to the Quidditch pitch. Harry wasn't flying around outside, and Ron could hear the shower running, so Harry must have finished already. Then Ron underwent a brief battle with himself about whether he should wait for Harry inside or go back outside and wait for him there. He finally settled on waiting inside and placed himself on a bench facing the shower room. He then leaned back and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally Ron heard the water shut off. Harry came out a minute later, wrapped in nothing but a towel and trying to get a hair comb through his mess of hair. Harry stopped in his tracks the instant he saw Ron, and Ron mentally thanked himself that he'd chosen to wait for Harry inside. With him dressed in nothing but a towel he couldn't exactly run off, and he looked like he really, _really_ wanted to.

Ron stood up.

"I need to talk to you," Ron said solemnly. Harry said nothing and instead focused on trying to get the hair comb out of his hair. It wouldn't budge.

"Here let me…" Ron began, reaching forward to try and help but Harry flinched and Ron stopped.

"Sorry," Ron said quickly, shoving his hands in his pockets and taking a step back. Harry wrestled with the comb for a few more moments and then gave up, leaving it hanging there.

"Can I talk?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Harry said offhandedly, crossing his arms across his chest and looking away, trying to look dignified but it was rather difficult considering that he was wearing nothing but a towel and had a hair comb tangled in his hair. Ron had to try his hardest to keep from smiling.

"I need to explain about what happened last night," Ron said, "and I'm really, _really_ sorry if I have hurt or confused you in any way," Ron said, remembering Hermione's words, "you were right, and it was a stupid game. But I didn't realize that you would get so upset about it otherwise I wouldn't have played it from the start." Harry studied his fingernails.

"And about that kiss," Ron began, Harry looked up, "I probably shouldn't have done it, but I meant it, and honestly I don't regret it, I just wish you could've found out under better circumstances. I liked kissing you," Ron admitted, "and I'm sorry if that disgusts you and I'm not expecting you to come running back or anything, and I'm not asking you to forgive me, all I ask is that you not hate me. You can avoid me for the rest of our lives, just please, don't hate me."

Harry fidgeted a bit, messing with the hem of his towel.

"I'm sorry I freaked out on you like that," Harry whispered quietly, "that probably hurt you, a lot."

"Yeah, well, you had every right to be angry," Ron said.

"Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Nothing."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"I should probably go," Ron said.

"No, wait, I…"

"You what?"

"Nothing." Ron watched Harry for a moment, Harry watched his feet.

"Okay Harry," Ron said quietly, "I'll see you around."

"Yeah, see you," Harry said. Ron turned heading toward the door, he'd just placed a hand on the doorknob when another hand stopped him, wrapping around the doorknob and firmly keeping it shut. Ron turned to look at the smaller man beside him, and Harry didn't back away, and stood his ground, comb still hanging out of his hair he looked at Ron directly in the eyes.

"Ron?" Harry asked quietly.

"Yeah?" Ron replied.

And this time it was Harry who kissed him.

The kiss was rough, almost desperate, with both boys trying to convey every feeling they'd ever felt in that one kiss, breaking only away when breathing became necessary. And there they stood, mouths hanging partially open, both still gasping for breath standing closer than two mates normally did but considering that they'd just been snogging a few minutes earlier they had a feeling that the old conventions didn't apply to them anymore.

"You too, huh?" Ron asked, quietly, closing his mouth and giving Harry a gentle smile. Harry merely nodded. Ron reached forward and gently stroked Harry's face, before pulling him into a tight hug. They held this position for much longer than the kiss, but it was every bit as sweet.

"So what happens now?" Harry asked quietly.

"I dunno," Ron said.

"Do blokes normally go out with other blokes in the wizarding world? I never really noticed…"

"Generally not," Ron replied.

"But… is it okay for you?" Harry asked, pulling away, "I mean, you don't mind, do you? Being with another bloke…"

"With you," Ron replied, "never."

"Then I won't either," Harry said, and kissed Ron again. This time it was softer, gentler, like the first kiss of many to come, and there would be many to come, of that, Ron was sure.

~.oOo.,.oOo.,.oOo.~

AN: Yes, the hair comb is still stuck in Harry's hair. Give them some time, I'm sure Ron will pull Harry into his lap and very gently untangle it as Harry nervously babbles on a bit and then Ron will comb Harry's hair for him or do something equally as adorable like that. I was going to write that, I swear, but I reached such a perfect conclusion it felt weird going on, which is why I love author's notes and the imagination of my readers. Who knows, I might write a little epilogue…


End file.
